Sunday, October 26, 2014

FINAL TALLY

The 2014 Extra Life video game marathon is now over. What an experience.

This trip began back in the summer when my nephew and I learned about the fundraising efforts of video gamers all over the world raising money for Children's Miracle Network hospitals everywhere. We decided it would be an event we would jump on board with. Something we could do together.

We spent the next few weeks drumming up support.....and donations. And we are thrilled with the results.

For the past week, my nephew has been coming home from school and dedicating 2 hours a night towards this marathon - 10 hours total. The on Saturday, October 25 he (and a few of his friends) played a marathon gaming session of 14 hours. 8:00am until 10:00pm local time....giving a grand total of 24 hours.

He was having so much fun and his efforts didn't go unnoticed.

After all the numbers were tallied, he raised $390 for the Alberta Children's Hospital. A fantastic effort. And because he surpassed the $200 mark, he will receive the official Extra Life 2014 marathon t-shirt.

That's pretty sweet.

But I'd like to share some other final (more bigger picture) numbers to give you a sense of the scale, scope and necessity of what all these gamers are doing.

Kyle was one of 56 participants playing on Team Extra Life Calgary 2014. That group raised over $15,000 (smashing the goal set of $10,000) and there are still donations trickling in.

An even bigger look shows that Extra Life gamers all over the world raised over $5 million in 2014.

Let me repeat that.......$5 million.

Anyone who thinks video games can't make a difference.......game over.

My nephew and I would like to once again thank everyone who took a moment to look at what we have done over the past few weeks. We'd like to thank you for the kinds words of support. And we would like to thank those who donated to a great cause.

We have already decided that we will be back in 2015 looking to make the event bigger and better.